By BERNIE BELLANWinnipeg may lack a kosher butcher shop and not one hotel or convention facility that has a kosher kitchen, but in the past few years we’ve seen a sizeable growth in smaller kosher catering services.

In other issues of this paper we’ve reported on the success that Bermax Caffé & Bistro has had providing delicious kosher food in a comfortable and modern setting. Just in the past month we’re also glad to report that Desserts Plus has reopened at its new location on King Edward Street, where it has both a store and café (which just received its kosher certification this week). As well, the Gwen Secter Centre offers kosher lunches on Wednesdays and Fridays, as well as kosher take-out frozen foods.In addition to those two venues, which offer customers a chance to sit down and enjoy a kosher meal right on the premises, the Shaarey Zedek and Etz Chayim synagogues also offer kosher catering.In the past three years, moreover, we’ve had the opportunity to enjoy meals prepared in the Chabad Lubavitch’s own kitchen at the Jewish Learning Centre, 1845 Mathers Avenue. Those meals have invariably been superb, offering a fine selection of dishes, including many meat and chicken ones. This past Passover, for instance, we were treated to a fabulous buffet meal at the Chabad seder, and a couple of months later, we were able to enjoy another delicious meal at the Talmud Torah – Beth Jacob Synagogue Annual Dinner. Both dinners were prepared under the supervision of Alla Golinkin, who is the head cook at Chabad.Alla, who came to Canada from Israel in 2010, has been working for Chabad since 2014. She told me that the very first meal she prepared there was the 2014 seder. After that very successful foray into large-scale catering – which was greeted with great enthusiasm by anyone who was at that seder, Alla began working full-time for Chabad, gradually expanding the range of foods that are now offered there.In the past three years Alla has been kept busy providing catering for a great many different functions, either in the Jewish Learning Centre itself – such as brises, bar mitzvahs, and the occasional wedding - or at outside locations, such as private parties in homes, shivas, office parties, and corporate events. Not too long ago, in fact, Alla and her team of experienced cooks catered a wedding at the Convention Centre for 200 people. When I spoke with Alla recently she invited me to come down on a Friday morning to see for myself all the baked goods that Chabad has for sale every Friday. With challahs, cinnamon buns, knishes, bourekas, and other baked goods, Chabad has been enjoying increasing popularity with not only the kosher-buying public, but a large number of other Winnipeggers who are pleased not only with the quality of the food offered, but also the very reasonable prices.Alla suggested that I take a look at the entire catering menu that is now available on the Chabad website at chabadwinnipeg.org. There, she told me, I would be able to see the complete list of foods that are available for catering or take-out.In addition to the take-out menu that is intended for groups and offers large servings of such items as soups, salads, kugels, gefilte fish, cabbage rolls, meatballs, sauté of beef, roast beef, chicken, and stir-fry, you can also order a single meal just for yourself or someone else. For instance, for just $12.90 you can have “2 chicken or beef burgers + Salad + fruit cup = Very Hungry Man’s Lunch!”Chabad takeout is also available for the High Holidays and Passover.If you’d like to order something from Chabad Catering , in addition to going online on the Chabad website, you can call Alla at 204-298-4221 or email her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. You can also see more of what Alla has to offer on her Facebook page, “Grandma Alla by Chabad” (https://www.facebook.com/KosherWinnipeg).By the way, we’ve written this article not in return for any sort of payment, but as a public service to help make more people aware that tasty kosher cooked food is available at reasonable prices through Chabad.